Sliding Roosevelt Essay, Research Paper

Sliding Roosevelt

President Theodore Roosevelt never “picked sides” with the liberals of the far left or the conservatives of the right. He usually found himself intertwined in the middle of the groups. Sometimes thinking like a conservative and sometimes thinking like that of a liberal. Whatever the case, he always maintained a foundation in the center to keep a neutral balance. “He stood close to the center and bared his teeth at the conservatives of the right and the liberals of the extreme left.”

President Roosevelt, although not a strong liberal, did do many things to help the country move on its way to become a more progressive country. The Elkin’s Act of 1903 was one thing Rosevelt did to make him seem like a liberal. It said there would be heavy fines given on the railroads that gave rebates and on the shippers that excepted them. For example, Roosevelt did his best as a trustbuster. The first thing that busted into headlines was an attack on the North Securities Company (a railroad holding company) in 1902. As a liberal, Roosevelt’s main issue to prove was that the government, not private business, ruled the country.

In dealing with conservation, Roosevelt knew just how to handle himself. He took conservation out of the conservation stage, threw some of the zest from his personality behind it, made it seem big, and got the public’s opinion. He created a policy of “multiple-use resource management”. This was to help keep things from changing too much and to try and conserve what all he could. In addition, Roosevelt granted rights to striking mine workers. Winter was coming and the country needed coal to keep warm. Roosevelt tried his best to keep the country happy and take care of business without any political changes, so he solved the mine workers ordeal himself. Though part liberal, Roosevelt stayed opened minded to the conservatives to keep his people happy with as few changes as possible.

Theodore Roosevelt never swung his big stick with full force. Roosevelt never swung with full force to the left and not to too hard to the right. For example, he had to battle against two fronts with his dealings in trying to preserve the forests. He had to battle against greedy commercial interests who abused nature (the liberals), as well as against romantic preservationists (the conservatives). Not being able to give both sides what they wanted, Roosevelt had to stand his ground in the middle and make a decision without being persuaded one way or the other. Throughout President Roosevelt’s history as president, he chose not to be one sided in anything that he did and to keep an open mind about many things.

Roosevelt never made a definitive jump to the right or to the left, therefore, leaving him not very well balanced on one foot hopping back and forth with different points of views. Due to his position in the middle, he had to remain open minded about everything that came towards him.